Actor Robert Young, who epitomized the perfect patriarch in the 1950s TV series "Father Knows Best" and later as the wise medico in the long-running "Marcus Welby, M.D.," died July 21 of respiratory failure at his home in Westlake Village, Calif. He was 91.
Young's cool, assured TV persona (he won three Emmys) and his long movie career as a suave leading man contrasted witch his acknowledged real-life bouts against depression and alcoholism, manifested as recently as 1991 with a suicide attempt.
Born in Chicago on Feb. 22, 1907, Robert George Young moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he attended Lincoln High School. After graduation, he worked at various jobs while acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse and appeared in small roles in silent films beginning in 1927.
During a 1931 stock company tour of a play "The Ship," he was spotted by an MGM talent scout and offered a five-year contract.
Almost immediately he was promoted to leading-man roles, most prominently opposite Helen Hayes in "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" (for which she won an Oscar) and the film version of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude."
His soft good looks and amiable personality made him a consistently popular casting choice for many of MGM's strong female stars, such as Norma Shearer ("Interlude"), Joan Crawford ("The Vagabond Lady") and Margaret Sullavan ("Three Comrades"). But, perhaps because of that, he never shone above his leading ladies and received reviews mostly on the order of Newsweek's 1942 assessment of "Joe Smith, American": "The acting--particularly Robert Young in the title role -- is unaffected and credible."
In the '40s, Young distinguished himself in the comedy "Claudia" opposite Dorothy McGuire and its sequel, "Claudia and David." After his MGM contract was terminated in 1945, Young freelanced and had a five-year agreement with RKO to give them one film a year. The period includes some of his best work, including "The Enchanted Cottage" (again with McGuire), the anti-Semitism tract "Crossfire" and the film noir "They Won't Believe Me."
In all, he made 125 theatrical films.
In 1949, NBC decided to produce a radio series about "an average family in an average American town," and selected Young for "Father Knows Best." In 1954 the hour-long radio series was compressed to a half-hour comedy for television.
Young became an indelible cultural icon as the head of the Anderson clan, which also included Jane Wyatt as his wife and Elinor Donahue, Lauren Chapin and Billy Gray as his children. For the next three decades "Father Knows Best" was a steady staple of TV syndication.
I met Robert Young as he passed through New Zealand and spent a few days resting before continuing on to USA. He was a gentle, dignified man with a fatherly air that made one feel at ease. Photographing him was a delight and we enjoyed an aimiable conversation over a pot of tea afterwards.